James Clear indicates in his book “Atomic Habits” the compounding effect of a 1% increase every day.

“Improving by 1% isn’t particularly notable, sometimes it isn’t even noticeable, but it can be far more meaningful – especially in the long run.”

“If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.”

Let us leave the new year’s resolutions and rather make one small choice for the rest of the year. It is better to do something small for longer period, than to do something big short term right?

You can choose something within the following themes to make it easier:

– Your well-being: to practically think about thing like sleep, exercise, diet, mindfulness practice?
– Your work: if you specifically want to make a small decision about work?
– Your core relationships: if you want focus on a specific person in your life and make a small decision there?

Choose one and make it simple. Do it either daily or weekly.

Ask yourself one good question every week or do a small practice every day? And connect this question or practice to an area for the whole year. Then think about the structure that will support this – set a reminder on your phone, specific time, place of the day?

Look out for Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity which will be released beginning of
March – it looks like a fascinating and practical read.

Until next month!
Andre

Ps: I’m commencing this monthly refection after a 2 year break – after releasing my book the
writing dried up a bit, but let’s get the conversation on soulfulness going again!

Make sure to stay updated by following my Instagram, Facebook and connect on LinkedIn .

During the past few weeks I spent 4 days on a farm in Namibia with no cell phone or internet connection. No phone, no internet, no emails, no WhatsApp. I couldn’t reach out for my phone quickly to scroll the latest news feed, couldn’t post anything on any platform. I was totally disconnected. All I could do was to witness the sunset and sunrise, look up at the stars at night, sit at the fire and share experiences with the people around me…in person…not on zoom! What a relief, to not anxiously await a message, or an alert of something I need to do, or attend to. Just to be there…and open to what is emerging from the moment.

I had to disconnect to be able to connect to myself and to God. My kids had to look for stuff to do in nature, learn to just sit and chat, pick up wood for the fire or play board games.

And we connected.

One night in Namibia I walked away from the house to just watch the stars – my 10 year old boy walked with me and we witnessed a sky full of stars, an unbelievable sight. “Daddy why are there so many stars tonight?”, he suddenly asked me. I told him that the stars are always there we just don’t see it because of all the (artificial) light. Because sometimes we need the darkness to witness the light, don’t we? We disconnected from the artificial light that night to connect to the stars and the light.

Sometimes we have to disconnect before we can connect. Years ago Nokia made an advert with the same title – you are welcome to watch this short video as it is a powerful depiction of this notion.

Last week I spoke to a business leader while on his 3-month sabbatical. We started planning his sabbatical last year, focusing specifically on how to be deliberate in disconnecting from his office. We talked about the value of sometimes looking at your business from a distance, to look from the outside and taking an intentional step to plug out before you plug in again.

At the end of our conversation he said:

“While disconnecting I get a renewed perspective and then I become small…and my problems even smaller – I remind myself just to breathe.”

We find ourselves in the middle of this year and it might be healthy to think of where you need to disconnect to be able to connect to God, yourself and others again.

Make one small decision about this – take one small step.

To deliberately disconnect for short periods – you don’t have to be out on a farm, or be disconnected for days to experience this – just take a short walk and leave your phone at home or at the office, and see what emerges for you.

Go and deliberately disconnect, so you can soulfully connect again.

Go well.

A lot of people that I dealt with then really needed time to disconnect and disengage from the “busyness as usual” and just recharge. Funny story – I bumped into somebody on December 9th 2021 and asked him :”How are you” – his reply: “Man, it feels like it is the 38th of December!?”. This summarizes the way a lot of people felt towards the end of 2021.

So how did this year start for you? Many people really go for everything now that we experience more “normality” – we are trying so hard to catch up on what we have missed the last two years that we forget the slowness of the pandemic. And this is great, seize the day, use the time that you have and make the most of it.

But…

…it will be really important to remember your basic rhythms. What helps you to stay anchored, focused, energised and centered?

Think about this for a moment about one basic rhythm that helps you to anchor, to catch your breath – it can be as simple as taking a 5 minute walk or just to stand somewhere and focus on something beautiful for 2 minutes.

What would that look like for you?

Choose one simple soulful rhythm for this year…one simple action that will keep you anchored. Keep it really simple!

Then make notes or an appointment with yourself to start with this as a new rhythm. Tell somebody about it, it will make you more accountable.

Let us also remember what is going on in the Ukraine at the moment and use our rhythms to also pray for peace. It is a real privilege to even have the freedom to think about new rhythms.

You are welcome to also listen to this podcast discussion on rhythms on my channel – follow this link and let me know if you have an interesting story on rhythms.

Go well

Dear bullets, dear bombs, I have helped you come together in order to practice. In your former life, you have killed and destroyed. But in this life, you are calling out to people to wake up, to wake up to humanity, to love, to understanding.
This bell’s very existence was a symbol of how transformation is possible and he rang it every morning and every night to invite soldiers into times of reflection.

At the beginning of this year, I really hope this story helps you to believe that you can make small changes in the way you live and work. That even difficult things and brokenness can be used as a reminder. And may the metaphor of the bell remind you to make small decisions about the way that you will (literally or metaphorically) ring a bell in your own life to remind you of the small changes and habits that you want to stick to this year. To wake up to humanity and love. Do keep it simple!

And let’s remember the words of Leonard Cohen in his song “Anthem”:

      Ring the bells that still can ring

      Forget the perfect offering

      There’s a crack in everything

      But that’s where the light gets in

Your response:

  Take 5 minutes to think reflectively about the following.

How can you create something that can be like a bell that rings in your life this year – something that reminds you to stop, to love and to be human? Think about something simple that you can use as a reminder, not to make you feel guilty, but to help you, your team or your family to believe that small changes and transformation is possible in 2020. It can be a reminder on your phone, a photo or a picture against a wall, a tree that you pass every morning or maybe a bell at your office?  Keep it simple and specific though…

My bell was a drop of water…watch the video of my story here. 

Events for 2020:

I am again conducting a few retreats and leadership retreats this year – more information can be found here.

And I still spend time with individuals and teams on request for reflective walks, experiential team development processes and team retreats – more information here.

I regularly spend time with teams in a labyrinth – ask me about this.

Also, keep letting me know if you have any soulful stories to share – it is wonderful to hear about the small moments that provide meaning and purpose.

Ring the bell!

André

As we come to the end of another year let us take a few minutes and reflect on the joys and the challenges of this year. If you are lucky enough to have a proper break don’t wait for the holidays to do this reflection, do it this week! If you do not have a proper break, remember to create small spaces for rest.

I am so grateful for the journey over the last year. My time with people in different walks of life brings so many awakenings and waterdrop-moments. It is such a privilege to be a witness of people’s journeys – be it organisational or personal. And the real challenge at the end of the year is to find ways to disengage from all the busy-ness.

I want to acknowledge the privilege of this journey by sharing a few hopeful stories of the past year and motivate you to rest well.

In a recent leadership retreat “Christmas in November”, I was again energised by the willingness of a group of leaders who didn’t know each other to share and be vulnerable. We again learned that when we intentionally create space the rest happens anyway.

And in a labyrinth walk with a team of soulful leaders, we shared our 6-word memoirs afterwards – this is where we summarize the leadership journey in 6 words in a creative way as a commitment. One person wrote the following 6 words:

From egoistic control towards soulful simplicity…

Isn’t this a challenge for each of us in any walk of life? To let go of the control and return towards God-given simplicity?

I was also very encouraged by a quarterly team session called Soulful Fridays where the organisation decided to elect 3 ambassadors to be the gatekeepers for their soulful organisation – they summoned them to be the organisation’s conscience and audit their ability to be a soulful organisation by looking at their daily practices.

Encouraging indeed! So let us celebrate our own soulful stories of 2019 and ask ourselves how we can respond to this in a simple practical way and pass it on. And on the way to the turn of another year do remember to rest well.

In his book ‘The 5 am Club’, Robin Sharma says:

Remember that growth happens in the resting phase, not in the performing phase.

You grow while you are sleeping not when you burn the candle on both sides. You grow when you turn in and reflect not when you are going at full speed!

So do make sure that you make time to rest and turn in because that will set up your growth for 2020.

I am excited about next year and will share events, dates and ideas early in the new year. I am quite excited by the possibility to host another soulful conference in September 2020 but more about this in the new year.

Rest well.